Adrenal Issues and Fibromyalgia

Hello everyone! I am a 32 year old mother of three. I have recently been diagnosed with Fibromyalgia after suffering for over 10 years. Not one doctor knew what was wrong, nor did they seem to care. I was slapped with misdiagnosis after misdiagnosis. I was told it was all in my head. I ended up doing the research and suggested Fibromyalgia to my doctor. Everything matched. It's pretty sad that I'm smarter than a doctor. At my worst, I was averaging only 2 hours of sleep every 2 days. To look back, I don't know how I went on for years like that! I fought the illness by acquiring an opiate addiction. I felt normal and productive when I had opiates in my system. The negative side was when I didn't have anything. I was so sick. Anyhow, I chose to go to rehab which ended up being the blessing I needed from god. In detox, they gave me the alpha blocker, Clonidine. It made the adrenaline stop pumping through me constantly. I asked to permanently be kept on it. Also, they let me stay on Suboxone. I am so much better at this point. I know that there isn't much chance on the normal person being put on Suboxone. But I wanted to tell everyone about the Clonidine because it decreases the adrenaline that runs through me. I've done some research and it turns out that Fibromyalgia is linked to the adrenaline glands. I just wanted to tell everyone my story and what has made a significant impact on my Fibromyalgia.
[This Message was Edited on 03/27/2013]

Many if not most of us here have adrenal issues. When you talk about adrenaline pumping through your body, the first thing I thought of was high cortisol levels. High cortisol will leave you feeling edgy, agitated, hard to calm down, and can cause severe insomnia too. There's a non-prescription supplement which is very effective at reducing high cortisol levels called Seriphos (phosphorylated serine). My levels were quite high at night several years ago, I had severe insomnia and Seriphos worked really to help normalize my cortisol levels, plus I started sleeping better almost immediately.

I do much better without drugs and all their side effects whenever possible. So it may be possible that Seriphos could help with your adrenal issues instead of Clonidine. It's just safer.

I strongly recommend if possible that people see an integrative medicine doctor for conditions like FM and CFS. Most regular doctors know almost nothing about these illnesses and generally just prescribe drugs. An integrative medicine doctor should look at everything going on - food allergies, adrenal issues, thyroid, etc., and whenever possible treats conditions with proper diet and supplements and avoid drugs as much as possible. It's just healthier that way, and also you can often get to the bottom of problems, instead of masking symptoms.

A good website to find an integrative medicine doctor is acam.org - they have a search feature at the top under health resources which can help you find practitioners in your area.

I've seen IM doctors, and also chiropractors who do muscle testing. A chiro helped me a lot with my very weak adrenals many years ago, using an adrenal glandular. I'm so glad I found the chiropractor, he helped me with several different issues (and is still helping).

I hope this is not too much information. Thank you for sharing what you did. I just wanted to suggest some possibilities you might look into.

Thanks for the post. As the adrenal glands become more and more fatigued, they produce less cortisol in the morning and afternoon and more at night.

That causes fatigue in the mornings and afternoons from low cortisol and insomnia at night from higher than normal levels of cortisol.

Also as cortisol levels drop, adrenaline levels go up to compensate, causing high anxiety. Adrenaline is the hormone that kicks in for "fight or flight" as well as to compensate for low cortisol, that's why is creates so much anxiety.

I'm glad to hear the clonidine is working so well for you! Best of luck to you! Jim
[This Message was Edited on 03/29/2013]

That when cortisol levels are too low, or cortisol receptors become "less receptive"
(adrenal burnout?) you can easily get into the switched-on fight/flight/adrenaline response which is like classic hypoglycemia in many ways. Doctors Jefferies, Teitelbaum, Doyle, Cleare, and Baschetti have all recommended low-dose cortisol therapy for many CFS/FM patients. Here's a way to look at FM/CFS which not only has a logical explanation for a large percentage of these illnesses, but also a definite treatment-option. Unfortunately, lots of depressed folks often have high cortisol levels but call their problem "CFS," and there are still a lot of misconceptions regarding cortisol, our most important and beneficial stress-hormone that tries to maintain a delicate balance with the other main player, adrenaline.

I went to a chiropractor for 6 mos. that ASSUMED my adrenal glands were out of whack and he put me on raw adrenal supplements. They did nothing for me. I would like to be tested, though. I've had insomnia for over 20 yrs. Like you, it took me 3 years to get a diagnosis and another 3 yrs. to get disability. I just couldn't work anymore. Also, I was having a hard time keeping a job and having to pay child support at the same time. Without proof of what was wrong with me, I couldn't get my child support payments reduced. I am a 58 yr. old female. I've tried so many medications, procedures, injections, neurostimulator implants and not much luck. Sometimes our bodies get immune to certain medicines and they just quit working and then have to try something else.

Dr. T is a board-certified MD in internal medicine who runs the "Fibromyalgia and Fatigue" centers. He was also suffering from CFS years ago and is an expert on the link with adrenal hormones in these diseases. Just Google him in regards to anything adrenal and you'll get some good info. Reading your post again, it seems you're trying to shut down all that excess adrenaline without considering what caused your stress-hormone imbalance in the first place . . .
Why not consider supplementing some cortisol, maybe some nutritional support for cortisol, etc., and take care of this stress-hormone issue a different way?
Back in the day when I had a whopping case of CFS (before the term "fibromyalgia" existed, along with all the other crazy new terms), my adrenaline was so high my resting pulse was usually 120 and I didn't sleep normally at all for about five years.
Cortisol (hydrocortisone) is the "good stress-hormone" and it will raise your blood-sugar to normal and stop the "fight-or-flight" adrenaline response.
Folks around here don't seem very interested in the stress-hormone connection, they'd rather talk about all kinds of subjects having nothing to do with actual CFS or FM!